The City is Our Living Room

Krøyers Plads, Nørreport Station, Nordhavn and Israels Plads. In almost next to no time, Dan Stubbergaard, co-founder of the architecture firm, COBE has put his unmistakable stamp on Copenhagen with a series of notable projects. In the exhibition, Our Urban Living Room at the Danish Architecture Centre, COBE invites visitors to experience the city from a new perspective: as an extended living room, in which the boundaries between private and public space are erased.

Photo: Rasmus Hjortshøj - COAST

A birthday party on Israels Plads, a workspace in the local
library or an afternoon in the sun on
'Queen Louise's Bridge': as far as the architecture firm COBE is
concerned, the city is our new
living room. Increasingly, we shift our everyday activities out
into it and we feel at home there. InOur Urban Living Room, COBE describes their vision and
presents the ideas that have formed
the basis of their projects in Copenhagen over the past ten
years.

"Today we use our city in a completely different way from
how we did just twenty years ago. Theharbour has become the city's largest park, and bicycle
culture is flourishing. The city's librarieshave changed from simply being places where you borrow books
to places where students do awhole day's work, families spend a Sunday morning and homeless
people can read the dailypapers. The city has become our living room. Many of us living
in Copenhagen do not havehuge apartments, so using the city as a place to spend time in
and as an extension of our ownhomes has become a natural part of life. Copenhagen has no
major tourist attractions like the

Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty. The main tourist
attraction is the Little Mermaid, which isone-and-a-half-metres high. Everyday life in Copenhagen has
probably become the city's majorattraction. Our work at COBE has been about unearthing this
and developing it: by buildingwonderful everyday architecture, which gives more back to the
city than it takes away. Thiscreates a setting for better, healthier, more social and even
more attractive everyday living,"
says Dan Stubbergaard, architect and co-founder of COBE.

Step into a giant bookcase The exhibition is constructed around a giant, wooden
bookcase with models, images and "mini buildings", into which
visitors can crawl, interacting with them, and feeling and
listening to them. The idea of the bookcase is to create a
flexible, multifunctional space. It can become a staircase, a
narrow corridor and a large room, thereby also forming a spatial
experience in its own right. Not to mention the fact, that a
bookcase is also part of a living room. The bookcase provides the
setting for eight rooms with different themes from COBE's work.
These include: architecture for children; the transformation of old
buildings; and a vision for the Copenhagen of tomorrow.

"Right now, COBE and its architect/co-founder, Dan
Stubbergaard are ones to watch - particularly
because they are helping to design the new Copenhagen. That is why
we have invited them to provide an insight into
their work and their visions for diverse, social urban
living. Public spaces, buildings and urban plans
guide us, knowingly or unknowingly, towards new social contexts, and we want to pass on this understanding to
visitors," says Tanya Lindkvist, DAC& LIFE Head of
Programmes at the Danish Architecture Centre.

Copenhagen through COBE's eyes At the exhibition, visitors will step into some of COBE's
most significant projects in Copenhagen. These include Kids'
City Christianshavn - the biggest day care centre and youth club
in Denmark with space for 750 children, designed as a small,
child-sized town with the likes of afire station, town hall and
restaurant. You can also admire your reflection in the beautiful
gold facade of the new rock music museum in Roskilde and step out
onto a balcony from The Silo in Nordhavn. The latter will be
installed on the facade of DAC during the run of the exhibition.
You will also gain an insight into projects, which are going to
shape Copenhagen in the future, but which are still at the drawing
board stage. For example, in February COBE won the competition to
design the conversion of the popular 'Paper Island'.

Discover architecture at close quarters COBE are also based on 'Paper Island'. During the run of
the exhibition, you are invited to visit them and continue your
experience at the DAC exhibition. This will represent a bridge
between DAC, COBE and what it is all about - the physical projects
in the city. The exhibition will send visitors between the two
locations and further around on Christianshavn for a close-up
experience of COBE's various projects. As part of the exhibition,
there will also be a series of events. For example, you can go on a
tour of some of COBE's projects, and there will be guided walks
every Sunday. Visitors will also be invited to contribute to a
digital map, on which they can mark the best public spaces in the
city for relaxing, throwing parties etc. - those places where the
city turns into an extended living room.

The exhibition, Our Urban Living Room has been curated and
designed by COBE and the Danish Architecture Centre. The exhibition
is supported by Realdania. In connection with the 3/3 exhibition,
COBE will be publishing their first book with the same title as the
exhibition. It is an Arvinius+Orfeus Publishing
publication.

About the exhibitionOur Urban Living Room opens on Culture Night on
14 October 2016 and runs until 5 January 2017. Admission: DKK
60. The exhibition will be presented at both the Danish
Architecture Centre, Strandgade 27B, 1401 Copenhagen K and at COBE,
Trangravsvej 6, 1436 Copenhagen K

About COBE Dan Stubbergaard was a co-founder of the architecture
firm, COBE in 2006. In just ten years, COBE have succeeded in
making their name as a trendsetting practice with great
understanding of architecture's function as a social engine. The
practice's projects are rooted in the special potential of each
place. They insist on creating increased value for future users and
a project's immediate environment. The practice's most significant
projects include: the New Nørreport Station - the busiest station
in Copenhagen; the planning of Nordhavn in Copenhagen - currently
the biggest urban development project in Scandinavia; a new iconic
building for Adidas at the sports brand's headquarters in Germany;
Denmark's new rock music museum in Roskilde; and the development of
'Paper Island' in Copenhagen.

Press photos You are free to use the photos in the context of any
coverage of the exhibition, Our Urban Living Room. See the
credits in the names of the files.

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THE BEST VIEW OVER COPENHAGEN HARBOUR

UNIQUE LOCATION FOR MEETINGS AND
CONFERENCES

We provide professional conference facilities and you will have the
opportunity to visit our changing exhibitions, and enjoy a light
lunch or a cup of coffee and a cake in our café on the first
floor.

TEACHING ARCHITECTURE

We offer courses for different age groups in connection with
Danish Architecture Centre's temporary exhibitions. The activities
are suited to varying target groups depending on the type of
exhibition and wherever possible the courses include hands-on
activities for children. The courses can also be conducted in
English.